Interview with Our Feathered Embers

‘Feathered Embers’. Embers that are feathered. Just imagine. Imagine what ‘feathered embers’ would look like. Okay, well I for one can’t picture such a thing. Could such a thing even exist? All I know is that if they could exist they would and must be beautiful. ‘Our Feathered Embers’ conjures some sort of untouchable beautiful image and is an undoubtedly striking name for the London-based folk duo consisting of students Anthony Hurley and Oscar Schumacher. ‘You’re following lines drawn out by the night fall, Chasing the horizon ‘til it’s dark. But you got everything you ever wanted, Dancing with those blue shoes in the barn.’ A few of Anthony’s words from my personal favourite track, The Runner. His poetry is as picturesque as their name. I got to know the pair before a recent gig at a vegetarian restaurant in Camden, Green Note, and talked organic beginnings, the exciting present and an ambitious future.

I discovered you guys only yesterday. So, to begin at the very beginning, when and how did you guys meet?

Anthony: We were at school together from the age of about 10. But we never really knew each other on a musical level until the end of secondary school when we started exchanging music. We played cover songs a lot. I approached Oscar first.

Oscar: I played in rock bands at school. And then just got into more folky music which brought Antony and I together. It all started in the summer of 2008.

How would you describe your sound to someone who’d never heard you before?

Anthony: I’d say folk with a strong focus on lyric.

Oscar: 60’s and 70’s folk artists.

Anthony: Yeah, I’d say for us there’s a big emphasis on English folk.

Anthony, as the writer what inspires your lyrics?

Anthony: Most of them are poems put to songs. I was writing poetry long before I got into making music. Pretty much all of it is essentially about love. It’s hard not to write love songs. But I try to include imagery that’s new and unusual but that people can relate to.

Where did the name come from?

Anthony: That was from when I was living in Dublin last year. I was trying to come up with a band name for like 3 weeks.

Oscar: We traded quite a lot of names and that one stuck. It’s difficult to pronounce but we feel it’s evocative.

Who does what in the duo?

Anthony: I play the cello and the guitar. Oscar plays the drums and the guitar.

Oscar: We both play guitar mostly and then I do backing vocals and occasionally lead vocals. We also have a pump organ we play around with. So we use all these cool instruments but we just don’t have anyone to play live with at the moment.

Anthony: We’re actually hoping to expand a bit. The writing will always remain with us two but for the stage and bigger venues we need more instruments, really.

What would you guys say has been your greatest achievement so far?

Anthony: I’d say when we played our song with Matthew and the Atlas, Mumford & Son’s support act from their latest tour. We did two shows with them. We also went to Gloucestershire to play a festival with them. And for us it wasn’t the type of moment that made us think “wow, we’re going to be famous”. It was more the fact that we were with friends on tour.

Oscar: We also did a great gig in Brighton on my birthday. It was so fun because there were about five or six of us and everyone was there and really into it and it was just extremely euphoric. We came off stage and were like “that was sick”.

What can be expected from you in the future? Any EPs or albums planned for release?

Oscar: Not official releases but we’ve spent the winter recording and we have 5 or 6 songs in the wings that we haven’t put out yet. This summer we mostly want to get on the festival circuit.

Anthony: The plan is to be ambitious and get our music listened to by as many people as possible.

Georgia Takacs